Skip to main content

2011 Nobeoka Nishi Nippon Marathon Elite Field

by Brett Larner

Organizers of the 49th Nobeoka Nishi Nippon Marathon have announced the elite field for the Feb. 13 race. A developmental race for up-and-coming marathoners and first-timers, Nobeoka serves the role of a step up to the next tier of the Japanese marathoning circuit.

Last year's 3rd-placer Takanori Ide (Team Kyudenko) heads the field, and with training partner Kazuhiro Maeda going for a World Championships spot a week before at the Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon Ide has been doing the workouts necessary to win. His competition will include last year's 5th-place man Kenji Higashino (Team Asahi Kasei), Takayuki Ota (Team Fujitsu), and, looking to improve on his rare overseas debut at last fall's Toronto Waterfront Marathon, Minoru Okuda (Team Honda). Among the debutants Okuda's teammate Seigo Ikegami (Team Honda) is the most likely to have a strong showing, but 1:02 half marathoners Yusuke Ichinoi (Team Nishitetsu) and Takaharu Miyazaki (Team Sumco) should also be near the forefront.

2011 Nobeoka Nishi Nippon Marathon Elite Field
click here for complete field listing with photos
Takanori Ide (Team Kyudenko) - 2:14:11 (Nobeoka 2010)
Takayuki Ota (Team Fujitsu) - 2:15:23 (Fukuoka 2009)
Taiga Ito (Suzuki Hamamatsu AC) - 2:15:42 (Hofu 2010)
Kenji Higashino (Team Asahi Kasei) - 2:15:42 (Nobeoka 2010)
Katsuhiro Katagai (Team Mitsubishi Juko Nagasaki) - 2:15:47 (Nobeoka 2008)
Minoru Okuda (Team Honda) - 2:18:52 (Toronto Waterfront 2010)
Takumi Owada (Team Hitachi Cable) - 2:22:02 (Tokyo 2010)
Michinori Takano (Team Sanyo Tokushu Seiko) - 2:24:27 (Senshu 2010)
Naoki Yamashita (Team NTN) - 2:25:43 (Nobeoka 2010)
Yusuke Ichinoi (Team Nishitetsu) - debut - 1:02:44 (Ageo Half 2005)
Takaharu Miyazaki (Team Sumco) - debut - 1:02:50 (Marugame Half 2009)
Seigo Ikegami (Team Honda) - debut - 1:03:00 (Kyoto Half 2002)
Kenji Sakata (Team Kurosaki Harima) - debut - 1:03:09 (Jitsugyodan 2005)
Takahiro Inoue (Team Komori Corp.) - debut - 1:03:39 (Inuyama 2007)
Bunta Kuroki (Team Yasukawa Denki) - debut - 1:03:57 (Jitsugyodan 2009)
Mahoro Ikeda (Team Aichi Seiko) - debut - 1:04:12 (Nagoya 2010)


(c) 2011 Brett Larner
all rights reserved

Comments

Most-Read This Week

Weekend Racing Roundup

  China saw a new men's national record of 2:06:57 from  Jie He  at the Wuxi Marathon Sunday, but in Japan it was a relatively quiet weekend with mostly cold and rainy amateur-level marathons across the country. At the Tokushima Marathon , club runner Yuhi Yamashita  won the men's race by almost 4 1/2 minutes in 2:17:02, the fastest Japanese men's time of the weekend, but oddly took 22 seconds to get across the starting line. The women's race saw a close finish between the top two, with Shiho Iwane  winning in 2:49:33 over Ayaka Furukawa , 2nd in 2:49:46.  At the 41st edition of the Sakura Marathon in Chiba, Yukie Matsumura  (Comodi Iida) ran the fastest Japanese women's time of the weekend, 2:42:45, to take the win. Club runner Yuki Kuroda  won the men's race in 2:20:08.  Chika Yokota  won the Saga Sakura Marathon women's race in 2:49:33.  Yuki Yamada  won the men's race in 2:21:47 after taking the lead in the final 2 km.  Naoki Inoue  won the 16th r

Japan's Olympic Marathon Team Meets the Press

With renewed confidence, Japan's Olympic marathon team will face the total 438 m elevation difference hills of Paris this summer. The members of the women's and men's marathon teams for August's Paris Olympics appeared at a press conference in Tokyo on Mar. 25 in conjunction with the Japan Marathon Championship Series III (JMC) awards gala. Women's Olympic trials winner Yuka Suzuki (Daiichi Seimei) said she was riding a wave of motivation in the wake of the new women's national record. When she watched Honami Maeda (Tenmaya) set the record at January's Osaka International Women's Marathon on TV, Suzuki said she was, "absolutely stunned." Her coach Sachiko Yamashita told her afterward, "When someone breaks the NR, things change," and Suzuki found herself saying, "I want to take my shot." After training for a great run in Paris, she said, "I definitely want to break the NR in one of my marathons after that." Mao

Takeuchi Wins Niigata Half in Boston Tune-Up

Running in cold, windy and rainy conditions, Ryoma Takeuchi (ND Software) warmed up for April's Boston Marathon with a win at Wednesday's Niigata Half Marathon . Takeuchi sat behind Nittai University duo Susumu Yamazaki and Ryuga Ishikawa in the early stages, then made a series of pushes to pick up the pace. Each time he tucked in behind whoever went to the front, while behind them others dropped off. Before 15 km only Yamazaki and Riki Koike of Soka University were left, and when Takeuchi went to the front the last time after 15 km only Koike followed. By 16 he was gone too, leaving Takeuchi to solo it in to the win in 1:03:13 with a 17-second negative split. "This was my last fitness check before the Boston Marathon next month, and my time was right on-target," he said post-race. "Everything went as planned. I'm looking forward to racing some of the world's best in Boston, and my goal there is to place in the single digits." Just back from tr